SFCruiser

Sail Date:
May 2013

Destination:
Europe - Eastern Mediterranean

Embarkation:
Venice

First, I would like to say that we had a lovely time on the Seabourn Quest and will be returning for another cruise. There are a couple things worth mentioning that hopefully will be corrected by Seabourn.

1- We selected a Veranda suite because we wanted to enjoy the use of a private balcony. I'm sorry to say that we weren't able to use ours because of the heavy ciggy smoke coming up to ours from below and our neighbor to our side at least four times. I told the Director of Guest Services, Allister about our problem. He told me that Seabourn is not a no smoking ship, and that people are allowed to smoke in their rooms as well as the balcony; Seabourn is looking into how to satisfy everyone. He also noted how costly it was to Seabourn when a guest smokes in their room as the room as has to be completely made so it's odor free for the next in coming guests. He also noted that Carnival tried to have a non-smoking ship but it was discontinued because it was unsuccessful. More
/>2- Someone forgot to tell our travel agent and some of the crew on board that a bottle of Champagne can no longer be part of room service or part of our normal stocked item without charging. Of course, ordering it by glass is now fine. It seems that Seabourn just changed the rule due to some unruly passengers taking bottles with them off shore. Well... In my opinion, a couple of bad apples shouldn't ruin it for others. We simply loved staying in and I'm a bubbly person. Perhaps they should check what's in your bag when going offshore and go back to stocking to your personal taste as advertised! It's weird that that don't mind giving you a full bottle of vodka!

3- Fitness Center- One section of the fitness center was almost always closed due to a personal trainer given his private or semi private sessions. I use the equipment located in that section at home as was thrilled to see it on the Quest. I also, loved the area to stretch, use the bonzu ball, form roller, etc. Unfortunately, I was either asked to leave, warned that I would need to leave or the door was locked with the trainer and his client(s) doing their thing! I belong to a very upscale gym and all the trainers and their clients has to share spaces with all of the clients.

4- Disembarking- We were a bit confused as we specially wrote down that we had arranged for our own transportation and would need to disembark as soon as possible and still received the red tags with the confusing paper the night before. I called guest services and she said that we still need to leave our luggage outside of the door the night before even if we need to be out prior to 8:00 am. She was wrong! We ended up waiting for luggage for well over an hour; it was a tense ride to the airport for an International flight! Guest Services should not have given the wrong information, but even more so, why ask two or three nights prior to arriving to fill out a form that asks you all these things and still be given red tags when you don't need them?? We will know next time to just call to have someone pick up our luggage when we are ready to depart or just take them with us.

Again, we had a lovely time: Our room was spacious, the food was very good. Petra our room attendant and Jessica at the Observation Bar were just wonderful! Less